There is something we truly hold dear, something which greatly increases replayability and allows players to expand the boundaries of any game: modding.

We always try to give you the tools to mod our games, as well as the know-how. Thanks to that, over the years we have published several games whose modding communities truly flourished. We’ll have a look at those games, starting with Pike & Shot: Campaigns.

Since its release, Pike & Shot has been built upon, expanded, improved with a series of DLCs. First it was From Tercio to Salvo. Then it was Campaigns. And then, the free expansion Le Roi Soleil. Eventually we bundled everything in a new title, Pike & Shot Campaigns, a huge game to represent any kind of battle from the 15th century up to the early 18th century. Since then, it has achieved a true cult status, being considered by the press one of the best wargames ever made, and managing to truly capture the miniature wargaming feeling.

In the meanwhile, an extremely dedicated fan base has been mastering the editor and has created a staggering number of custom made scenarios and mods. We are talking of over one hundred scenarios made by players, as well as many other campaigns, army lists, mods, and so on.

Let’s have a look at a few select ones, all of them a great mix of historically accurate orders of battle and balanced and exciting gameplay. And don’t forget to visit the forum to check the complete list of downloadable scenarios and mods, as well as numerous useful tutorials on modding. All these scenarios can be downloaded easily in game!

Narva 1700 (author: Paul59)

A huge scenario, recreating the epic battle between Charles XII of Sweden and the army of Tsar Peter of Russia under the command of Charles Eugène de Croÿ. It features Narva’s snowy battlefield, new graphics and tons of unique units.

Cotes Bridge 1644 (author: Warlord156)

The English Civil War is raging as the Parliamentarians face the Royalists at Cotes Bridge. Control of the bridge is vital in this extremely tactical battle.

Bosworth 1485 (author: Odenathus)

It’s time for the Wars of the Roses! Two late medieval armies face each other on the field of Bosworth, a battle which will determine the fate of the crown of England. Lead Richard III’s forces and save his throne – or die in the attempt.

There are many, many more scenarios. Entire wars have been fully represented.

Paul59 created 14 excellent scenarios for the Nine Years’ War aswell as 6 on the Great Northern War, Odenathus focused on the Jacobite Rebellion and made 3 really nice scenarios for it, while nikdav concentrated his efforts on the Ottoman Wars and made 5 scenarios!

But Pike & Shot isn’t just battles. It’s also… campaigns!

Suleiman’s European Campaign (author: Paul59)

It’s the first half of the 16th century and the Ottoman Empire is launching major invasions into Europe. The Turkish forces of Suleiman the Magnificent are bolstered by their Moldavian, Wallachian and Tatar vassals, while Hungary will be sustained by the Holy Roman Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian crown and the Transylvanian princes in this multiethnic campaign with a plethora of national armies ready to take the field.

The Wars of the Roses (author: Paul59)

Lancaster against York in a dynastic struggle for the crown of England. Which house will prevail? This campaign brings Pike & Shot back to the late medieval era.

And now… mods!

Extra Nations v2 (author: Paul59)

Now this one is just huge. It adds a massive number of accurately researched playable army lists, both in the Campaign and Skirmish mode, with new unit graphics to match. Do you want the list? Irish, Anglo-Irish, Portuguese, Moroccans, Algerians, Dulkadir Emirate, Lithuanians, Moldavians, early Safavid Persians, White Sheep Turcomans, Uzbeks, the Khanate of Kazan, Crimean Tatars, Burgundians, the Monmouth Rebellion, Teutonic Knights, endless national peasant armies, Georgians, the Mamluks, Williamite in Ireland, Scots Williamites and Covenanters, Border Reivers, Bavarians, Prussians, Saxons, Wallachians, Zaporozhian Cossacks, Venetians and Savoyards!

Impressive, right?

Four Seasons (author: adebar)

No, I’m not talking of Vivaldi’s classical music. This gorgeous mod adds four different graphical sets, to set your battles in any season you’d like. Note: unlike the scenarios and the campaigns, you can’t download this one in game. If you’d like to try it, click on the link and follow the installation instructions.

That's it, for now. There are more, wonderful scenarios and mods for Pike & Shot - we only had limited space and we picked a few, but we'll go back to this game in the future and cover more scenarios, no doubt about that. We'll also feature the modding communities of other games. But for now, we'd like to thank all the modders and scenario makers of Pike & Shot. Thank you guys, you are all fantastic and you made the game even more special!

One more thing! We are gathering feedback on the modding experience in the Slitherine family, so if you have a few minutes and are willing to answer to a short survey, please click here and take part in the discussion :) Thank you.

In our previous dev diaries we focused on the different available game modes, as well as the design behind the UI. Today we are going to cover a number of different subjects, but all have something in common: why we decided to make Empires Apart.

It’s no secret that we drew heavy inspiration from games that marked our childhood: Age of Empires, Empire Earth, and others. We wanted to bring back that feeling, the familiar atmosphere of games we loved, but also add our own touch, as well as modernize the formula, bring it to 2018’s standards. Empires Apart is, basically, the game we wanted to play.

“Everyone was talking and chatting, when slowly came into sight the first tank I ever saw. Not a monster but a very graceful machine with beautiful lines…. Here was the missing tool of penetration, the answer to the dominance on the battlefield of small-arms fire.”—J.F.C. Fuller

Matrix Games/Slitherine’s upcoming release of Brian Kelly’s Desert War 1940-42 uses a simple game mechanic often found in WWII board games. It gives tank units a “special place” in the player’s toolbox—a positive shift to the combat force ratio if attacking, and the opposite when defending. Coming up short of attack factors? No problem! Throw in some tanks. A 1 to 1 attack can become a 2 to 1, 3 to 1, 4 to 1, etc. In Desert War 1940

Hello everyone, and welcome to our last Dev Diary for Check Your 6! Today we're going to talk about aircraft Speed, Movement and Control. You can find a quick preview down below, if you want to read the whole Dev Diary just click HERE.